Face Time
Chapter One
Mildred sighed. It was no good. Magic just wasn't a subject you could learn from home. She missed Maud, and Izzy, and Enid, and everyone else now separated from her. She missed waking up in the morning and seeing the bats come home. She even missed being able to fly.
They had only been a few weeks into the Summer Term when the lockdown began. For all their spells and potions, even witches could get ill. Miss Cackle had kept going as long as she could, until one morning they had all gathered in the Great Hall with their cats and luggage, standing a careful two metres apart, and Miss Hardbroom had transported most of the girls straight home. They hadn't even wanted their pupils to risk the flight. There were still a few at school, the children of essential workers like witchdoctors and apothecaries and magical suppliers. Everyone else had been loaned a maglet, with a separate keyboard to make it into a spellpad, and was now spending each day logged into the Magical Learning Portal, an extension of the school's magic mirror.
H.B. made few compromises. Everyone had eight hours of lessons a day, and she checked up on them every evening – and occasionally at other times – to see what progress had been made. Everyone except Ethel Hallow had heard the same barked speech.
"Don't think that being at home means you can sit around doing nothing all day! Broomstick practice may be on hold, but you still have Spell Science, and Potions, and Chanting. Any slacking will result in a complaint to your parents!"
So Mildred sat at the kitchen table with her spellbook, wondering if there was a spell to conjure up tinned tomatoes or toilet rolls. For all her powers, she and Mum were still struggling to get the shopping in.
The timing had been so unfair. She had just been made Head Girl, and found her long-lost Dad and half-sister, and now she was stuck in a tower block, in charge of nothing and seeing almost no one. At least she had Mum for company, and Tabby, and Star. Izzy had mirrored her the night before. When all this was over, Mildred and her Mum were going on holiday to the farm. They would have their first ever meal as a complete family. There were so many things for them to see and do...
The spellpad chimed, and Mildred took the call. Maud appeared.
"Hey. What's happening?"
"Absolutely nothing," said Mildred. "Got up, had toast and cheese spread, did P.E. with Drill and now I'm trying to write an essay on The Importance of Broomstick Flight in the Modern Era. When we can't even go out and fly, anymore! Every witch in the world's been grounded." She smiled at her best friend. "Miss you!"
"Miss you, too."
There was another chime. Ethel appeared suddenly, in another corner of the screen. Mildred hadn't accepted a call from her, but that was magic technology for you. People tended to appear unexpectedly.
"Getting to you, is it? I'm having a really good day. Did P.E. in our home gym, then had half an hour on the broomstick simulator. Mum and Dad bought it for us, especially."
She was using a background for her call, and appeared to be soaring through a starry sky. Mildred blinked. Trust Ethel to have the premium account.
"I can't believe this is happening," said Maud. "We're witches. We've got a lab full of potions equipment, at school. If we can't find a cure for this, or a vaccine, who can?"
Ethel sniffed.
"It was bound to happen. Once we let non-magical pupils into the school." She ignored Mildred and Maud, staring at her. "I mean, once you have ORDINARY people, they bring ordinary diseases."
"Ethel," said Maud. "That's quite racist. And wrong. I think you should apologise to Mildred."
Ethel took no notice.
"Thankfully, our house has protection spells all around it. No one here's getting infected."
"Enjoying our chat, are we, girls?"
All three of them jumped. Even virtually, Miss Hardbroom could appear at any moment. And she did so now, a fourth face on the screen. The girls could see, from the background, that she was in the potions lab.
"I take it this means you have all finished your essays, and can upload them for magical assessment before lunchtime." There was silence. "No? I thought not. Of course, if you wish this to be reflected in your annual reports, you are going entirely the right way."
All the girls jumped again, as there was a thunderclap and their screens lit up like lightning. Maud and Ethel were gone in a moment. Miss Hardbroom smiled slightly, then disappeared.
Mildred took the hint. She continued her essay.
Half an hour later, she was still unfinished, but bored.
The photos pinned up on the noticeboard, and through there in the living room, were freaking her out. She had grown used to her new face, while she was at school. Mum had seemed totally cool with it. But it was strange to come home and see a different girl looking back at you. Being a redhead was great, but there were days when she missed being a brunette.
That's what she should do! While she was stuck at home, with nothing else of interest to do. She should try and change her face back. She had books full of spells and potions. Surely one of them must work?
She wrote the last paragraph of the essay at speed, then turned to fourth-year spells. There were lots for personal use... a spell to get a suntan (she should try that, just to puzzle Ethel!)... a spell for combined invisibility and intangibility... a spell to make yourself taller...
Then she turned the page. A spell to disguise yourself as someone else. It was her own self she was aiming at, but surely this ought to work? It generated a new face for you... based completely on your own thoughts.
It was worth a try. She went and gathered all the photos of the old Mildred they had, spread them out on the table in front of her, and stared at them hard. She had to get her old face squarely within her mind.
Then she began to chant.
Let status shift, reverse the norm
Let me assume another's form
From mind, from thoughts, my looks shall be
Another's face shall now be me!
Just as she spoke the final words, the spellpad chimed again, and Ethel's face appeared.
"Mildred..."
Mildred glanced at her. Then too late, she realised.
"Nooooo!"
There was a blaze of light. Mildred hardly dared look.
Then she grabbed up her phone, using its blank screen as a mirror.
Ethel Hallow's face stared back at her.
Chapter Two
Slowly, Mildred lowered the phone. She looked from Ethel in the mirror, to real Ethel in the magic mirror.
The silence didn't last long.
"MILDRED...! What have you done - !"
"What have I done - !" Mildred jumped. Not only had she Ethel's face, but Ethel's voice as well. The disguise spell had done its job. "It's your fault! Popping up like that..."
"You give me my face back, now!"
"You've still got it!" Mildred put up Ethel's hand, touched her cheek. "I was trying to get mine back..."
"I might have known you'd mess it up."
"It was you, distracting me, that did it..."
"You put your own face back on, now, or I'm telling Miss Hardbroom."
"Are you all right in there, love?"
Mildred looked across the room, as she heard Mum approaching. Quickly, she pointed at the kitchen door and zapped the lock. Julie Hubble tried the door, unsuccessfully.
"Millie, what's happening?"
"I'm..." Mildred thought quickly. Despite looking like Ethel, she was no better at lying. "I'm doing a mock exam. Under exam conditions. I've got to have total silence." She made a grab for the spellpad. An indignant Ethel disappeared from the screen. "I can't come out until I've finished."
"So who were you shouting at?"
"Er..." Mildred thought, again. "It's an oral exam. A Shouting Spell. With built-in echo."
"Well, you'll have to stop at one!" Mum's voice came back. "I want to start lunch then. And I said I'd drop a lasagne in to Mrs Lewis."
Mildred/Ethel gulped.
"OK."
She heard Mum moving back towards the bedrooms. She was using this lockdown to give the flat its spring-clean.
Mildred looked at her wrist. Thankfully, her watch was still there. That gave her... half an hour, to get her own face back. There must be a reversal spell. It would be OK. As long as no one else distracted her...
She grabbed the spellbook, turned the page. Here it was.
She looked at the photos again, concentrated hard.
Let status shift, restore the norm
Let me assume my own true form
From mind, from thoughts, my looks shall be
My own true face shall now be me!
Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing.
Why wouldn't it reverse?
"Mildred..."
Oh no. Mildred knew that voice. She made a grab for the video settings, activated background blur.
Miss Hardbroom appeared on the screen.
"I still have not received your essay..." Miss Hardbroom stopped. "Ethel." Mildred saw her adjust the spellpad. "There appears to have been a technical fault. I was trying to contact Mildred." She peered into Mildred's blurred kitchen. "Where are you?"
"I'm..." Mildred tried to think Ethel. "I'm in the servants' quarters, Miss Hardbroom. It's quieter here."
"While we have a moment to ourselves..." Miss Hardbroom leaned nearer to the magicam. "I have been meaning to speak to you, about Mildred's role as Head Girl. I have seen considerable progress this year, yet I am still concerned her temperament makes her unsuited to the job. Frankly, I feel she still has much to learn. She has a long way to go, if she is ever to become a fully qualified witch."
Mildred/Ethel's mouth was hanging open. Miss Hardbroom looked puzzled.
"You do not agree?"
"Oh..." Mildred/Ethel blinked. "Yes, absolutely, Miss Hardbroom. Way to go. Long way to go. Sure. Grey cat, bendy broom, no good at all. That's why I made her my special adviser." Too late, she remembered who she was. "I mean, she made me, her..."
"Are you quite well, Ethel?"
"Fine, thank you, Miss Hardbroom."
"Hmm." Miss Hardbroom paused. "Just remind me, Ethel. What is rule number twenty-seven, paragraph five of the Witches' Code?"
"Er..." Mildred/Ethel thought frantically. "A witch will always remember to keep her cauldron clean..."
"A witch will be open, honest and transparent..."
"... in her use of magic."
To Mildred's horror, the real Ethel appeared on the screen.
"That's right, Miss Hardbroom. I know every rule of the Code."
"And others, it appears," said Miss Hardbroom, "still do not." Her face became larger on the screen, glaring at Mildred. "Mildred... if you are in there. Will you kindly tell me what is going on?"
Chapter Three
Mildred had had to give many explanations in the course of her Cackle's career, but this was one of the hardest. It was even harder with Ethel's face and voice giving the explanation, while another Ethel grinned beneath.
Finally Miss Hardbroom lifted her hand.
"I will speak to you later, Ethel."
"Thank you, Miss Hardbroom," said both Ethels. Miss Hardbroom barely raised an eyebrow. She banished the real Ethel from the spellpad with one wave of her hand.
"Now, Mildred, perhaps you would be good enough to explain to me exactly what you did?"
Mildred did so. Miss Hardbroom shook her head.
"Mildred, four years of Spell Science seem to have taught you very little. Firstly, you cannot use a reversal spell to return to a face different from that with which you started. You may return to your original state, and nothing more."
Mildred looked downcast.
"Secondly, a spell of this power requires an accompanying potion to cause its reversal."
Mildred looked puzzled.
"So what is it, Miss Hardbroom? This potion?"
Miss Hardbroom smiled slightly.
"That, Mildred, is quite within your abilities to find out."
Miss Hardbroom disappeared before Mildred had the opportunity to shout: "No!"
Mildred looked at her watch. Twenty minutes, now, until Mum wanted to start lunch.
She supposed Miss Hardbroom was right. She had spellbook, potions book, dictionary of formulae and the magical Web.
In the end, Witchipedia pointed her in the right direction. Disguise spells needed a Potion of Transparency to aid their reversal. But what were the ingredients? It was hard enough getting pasta and toilet rolls, at the moment.
She found the potion, just before the end of the book. Thankfully, it was formed with basic hot water and not pondwater or seawater. Mildred didn't have time to wait for her cauldron to heat. She went and put the kettle on.
Ground wild mushrooms and dried nettles... her basic potions kit from school had just enough of those. Cat hairs... there was no shortage of those with Tabby around. She just hoped black hairs weren't needed. A single hair from her own, disguised head... ooh... Her hairbrush and styling brush were in the bedroom, on the other side of a locked door, close to Mum. And that was red hair, anyway, not blonde.
In the end, she had to pull one loose. It was painful. At least it looked like one of Ethel's.
She brought everything to the boil, then realised the recipe went over the page. There was one final ingredient... Oh... She didn't believe it.
Tomatoes.
She ran into the kitchen, turning everything out of the fridge and the store cupboard. Why couldn't it be powdered pondweed or essence of raincloud? She had those. No one had panic bought witch ingredients...
There wasn't a tomato in the place...
"Millie!" Mum's voice came. "Have you finished, love?"
Tins. Mildred searched among their diminishing store of tins. Curry powder... pineapple rings...artichoke hearts...asparagus...she had to stop Mum watching daytime TV.
"Millie!"
Then suddenly, there it was. Their last tin of tomatoes. No ring-pull. Mildred/Ethel ran for a tin opener.
She tipped the whole tin of tomatoes into the cauldron. The potion smelt like a cross between a pasta bake and a pet shop. She found a teaspoon, and forced herself to take a sip. It was as disgusting as anything that came out of H.B.'s lessons.
"Mildred, will you open this door!"
Mildred looked at the door. The magical lock hadn't been strong enough. The door was starting to open. Mum would be in here, wondering what Ethel Hallow was doing in her kitchen.
She grabbed the spellbook.
Let status shift, restore the norm
Let me assume my own true form
From mind, from thoughts, my looks shall be
My own true face shall now be me!
There was another blaze of light. When it cleared, Julie Hubble was standing in front of Mildred.
"Millie? Have you finished, love? What happened to that door?"
Mildred quickly glanced at her phone, at the camera on the spellpad which was still on.
She was back. Red-haired Mildred. She decided it was a good look, after all.
"What have you been trying to do in here?" Julie surveyed the mess. "Another of H.B.'s potions?"
Mildred smiled and nodded.
"Come on. Help me clear this up. Get everything back in the fridge, it'll go off. And then we need to start the lasagne."
Mildred took a breath. For now, her troubles were over.
Then she heard Mum say:
"Have you seen them tomatoes?"
The End